5 Miles East

What is Five Miles East?

We live on a small acreage five miles east of Bloomington, Illinois and people would often ask where we were located. The answer was always "five miles east" and it kind of stuck. It just seemed natural to create our fashion label as Five Miles East.

What we want people to know and trust about Five Miles East is that our focus is totally on producing high quality 100% royal baby alpaca knitwear that is smart, comfortable and functional. That is all we will market under our label. No foreign imports, no garments that may contain any fiber that is not 100% royal baby alpaca. We are careful about that.

“I'm so grateful for having all those beautiful garments in our gallery”

We set out, also, to focus entirely on the natural, hypoallergenic colors produced by the alpacas, but we have learned that sometimes a little color enhances the natural colors of alpaca and just makes sense. If and when we make a choice to add some additional color to an item, we have carefully selected dyers who only use dyes that are earth friendly.

Five Miles East fashions offer the wearer the most comfortable experience possible in a garment that will last for generations.

“Spectacular workmanship . . . wearable arts!”

A Little More About Our Fiber

All of our fashions are created from 100% American royal baby alpaca fiber produced by alpacas on our farm or other small farms associated with the Synergy Alpaca Alliance*. The owners of all of these farms are committed to growing the finest fiber possible through a scientifically based breeding and animal management system proven to constantly improve fiber quality.

Once the alpaca is shorn, each fleece is carefully selected to make sure it meets Five Miles East standards for fiber quality. After a fleece is selected, it is carefully gone through by hand to remove any lesser quality fiber before being sent off to a boutique mill. Experience has shown us that our mills know how to wash, card and spin the fiber to maximize the attributes of alpaca so you can experience alpaca at its finest.

When the yarn is returned to Five Miles East we begin distributing the yarn to knitters for creation of garments based on our own designs.

*The Synergy Alpaca Alliance is a community of agribusiness professionals focused on and engaged in animal husbandry toward the ultimate creation of wearable art made from the finest quality alpaca fiber.

Contact Us

Each of our products are one of a kind and these are items we've made for customers in the past. If you are interested in having an item made just for you please contact us or check out where to buy our products!